The present invention is concerned with a collapsible container usable in shipping products, such as bagged potato chips. Bagged potato chips conventionally are shipped or delivered in the familiar cardboard carton which, while adequate for its intended purpose, is normally used only once and then discarded.
By constructing a shipping container of plastic material, such as polypropylene, and forming the container in a manner such that it can be collapsed for convenient return to the source of the goods, a single container may have a useful life of literally hundreds of deliveries.
Where such containers are used to handle bulky, low-density articles, such as the potato chips referred to by way of example, the containers may be of a relatively light-weight construction, needing structural rigidity when in their erected position only such that a reasonable number of loaded containers may be stacked, one upon the other, and that side loading forces, such as those normally encountered in transportation and handling, will be adequately resisted.
While the prior art discloses many examples of collapsible containers designed for repeated use in the transport and handling of uniformly sized products, such as bread loaves, etc., the prior art containers of this type normally rely upon the rigidity of the individual walls or panels for structural rigidity of the container, whereas in many instances longer useful life of the container may be achieved if the container walls have some degree of flexibility. A second drawback of the prior art is its lack of practical constructions for collapsible containers in which the container may be provided with a cover.